"The Banking Concept of Education"-Paolo Freire

Paolo Freire talks about a complicated subject of the forms of education in his essay, "The Banking Concept of Education". This was a particularly difficult read for me, as I struggled with most of the sentence structure and vocabulary, so I will apologize if I have a total misconception of some of his ideas!


Although I struggled, one area that stood out to me was Freire's idea of narration:
      "Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated content. Worse yet, it turns them into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teacher."...."Education thus becomes an act of depositing." (Freire 74)


I found it particularly interesting that Freire was accurate that sometimes students are "deposited" with information. When I think of a deposit, I just think of money sitting in the bank. This idea of students just being given information is quite common for some. I know I have had information just dumped on me in several classes. Freire is emphasizing the importance of teachers to not just give information but to make it important so that it has meaning and isn't just "sitting" in their banks. While some things require memorization, most should not, and students shouldn't have to memorize monotonous information, as Freire implies. Its important for the information to hold meaning, and for students to not become just dumpsters full of teachers' knowledge. 


Another realization I have, is that Freire talks about teachers being better than students, and with this act of "filling the container", teachers are therefore placed higher or better than students. The best kind of education is when a student asks questions that further what a teacher has already talked about. If a teacher is just giving all that he or she knows, that doesn't necessarily make them any better than the student who now knows the same information. The best education is the kind where students enlighten teachers to know more and for students to learn more on their own. This would prevent the deposit of teachers and would reduce the banking of knowledge of students.

"Engaged Pedagogy" Bell Hooks

Bell Hooks' essay "Engaged Pedagogy" struck me as an extremely important way for teachers to view education, but also for students, and their expectations for education. I really enjoyed reading this essay, One idea that Hooks talked about  in the essay stated "They (students)  do want knowledge that is meaningful. They rightfully expect that my colleagues and I will not offer them information without addressing the connection between what they are learning and their overall life experiences." (Hooks 71)

This idea spoke out to me. I don't know how many times that I have sat in a classroom, thinking, "Why is this important to me, and when am I ever going to use this?" Hooks speaks of the importance of students seeing a real-life connection to the subjects they are learning. Without these experiences, the information is meaningless to most. I think it's beneficial to both students and teachers to realize and see how important it is to make the information meaningful. When students can see why what they are learning is important to not only themselves, but to their own professors who are teaching them, they see the relevance of the things they are learning.

Not only does hearing how an idea became real-life to someone else render as important, it also shows that there is more to learning than just reading and writing papers to get a grade and a degree. I learn everyday, but the most meaningful lectures are the ones that I can apply to my own life. When I leave a lecture hall, I like walking out thinking, "Wow, so and so really explained why (blank) happened to me." Otherwise, like a meaningless lecture, I think we sometimes do things without caring why we do them. When teachers give real life experiences that relate the ideas they are teaching and show the importance of what we are learning, we get answers for the question "WHY" and that makes everything more interesting and meaningful. Otherwise, if it doesn't apply to real life in anyway, what is the significance? Who cares?